Global climate change is an important scientific issue. It is also
the subject of fierce political debate. The American Geological Institute
(AGI) and its member societies are seeking ways to bridge the gap between
the science and policy of climate change.

This past December, AGI sent copies of its position statement on global
climate change (see box this page) to each member of Congress and to key
executive branch officials. AGIís executive committee adopted the statement
earlier in the year and then invited the presidents of AGIís member societies
to add their endorsements.

AGIís goal was to develop a statement that represented a broad consensus
across the geoscience community. The AGI Government Affairs Advisory Committee,
itself comprised of member society representatives, prepared the initial
draft, which then went through two rounds of review by the member societies
before its adoption. The subsequent endorsement by 16 member society presidents
with none opposed is a measure of success in achieving consensus.

AGIís statement focuses on the central role that the earth sciences
play in understanding climate change. Such a statement may seem obvious
to geoscientists; but policy-makers will not recognize the value of geoscience
input unless we make the case to them.

Two of AGIís member societies also issued statements in 1999: the American
Geophysical Union in February and the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists in October. Although the focus of each statement varies, all
three were developed with a similar purpose: to serve as a tool for geoscientists
to take a more active role in informing the debate over climate change.
In other words, issuing a policy statement is the beginning of a process,
not the end product.

To better understand how geoscientists can play an effective role, AGI
joined forces with four other scientific societies to commission a study
for assessing the opinions congressional staff members have about the appropriate
role of scientists and scientific organizations in debates over global
climate change policy. A national public relations firm conducted focus
groups and individual interviews with Democratic and Republican staffers
working on this issue.

Questions probed how knowledgeable members of Congress are about climate
change, their preferred information channels, and their perceptions of
the issueís importance. The study found that congressional staffers appreciate
communication from scientists and that ďscientists have a role to play
as credible, objective communicators and interpreters of data.Ē The studyís
findings also indicated that staffers were particularly eager to hear from
scientists who were constituents of their representative or senator.

Such findings suggest an opportunity for scientific societies to engage
geoscientists at a grassroots level as communicators and information sources.
Climate change will remain a key environmental issue in the second session
of this Congress and may also be a campaign issue in the 2000 elections.
The debate certainly will rage on whether or not scientists seek to inform
itóthat is our challenge as a community and as citizen-scientists.

David ApplegateAGI Director of Government Affairs. E-mail: govt@agiweb.org.